Tony Benn dies: watch his hoax interview with Ali G

When he was asked to appear on a TV show introducing politics to young people,
Tony Benn jumped at the chance. The interviewer's name? Ali G

By Keith Perry

8:43AM GMT 14 Mar 2014

Tony Benn was famously spoofed when he was interviewed by Ali G who asked: 'Does the welfare not just encourage young girls to go out and get jiggy with Mr Biggy?'

To which he replied: 'If you think girls get pregnant because they think they'll get benefit, I think you're living in a funny world.'

Writing about the experience later in The Guardian, he said: “When he arrived, Ali G was courteous and friendly as I welcomed him into my office and, in his first question, he asked me to explain socialism, which he seemed to believe was the same as the welfare state but went on to argue that all strikes were motivated by laziness, almost as if he was a leader-writer in the Sun.

“It was at this early point that I decided that the only respectful thing to do was to argue with him and to do so as vigorously as I could.

“There was nothing else I could do since all the crudest prejudices poured out of him, not least his argument that all "bitches" just got pregnant to get on to benefit, and so on.

“At no stage during our talk did I suspect for a second that it was other than a genuine programme, and when the interview was broadcast and someone rang to tell me about it, I was very angry and wrote to the production company demanding a video, which I watched.”

Benn recorded his colourful career in his diary, which he said helped him learn from his mistakes.

"Experience is the only real teacher and if you keep a diary you get three bites at educating yourself - when it happens, when you write it down, and when you reread it and realise you were wrong. Making mistakes is part of life. The only things I would feel ashamed of would be if I had said things I hadn’t believed in order to get on. Some politicians do do that."